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If you have ever wondered what you should be feeding your shrimp, how much you should be feeding your shrimp, and how often you should be feeding your shrimp, this is the video for you!
In this video, I share with you how I feed my shrimp and advise how you work out what to feed your shrimp, when to feed your shrimp, and how much to feed your shrimp!
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0:00
you'll quickly build up a picture in your mind of how much food your shrimp will consume within
0:05
that one to three hour window hello friends welcome back to the channel if you're new here
0:10
my name is richard and i'm a fish and shrimp breeder based in the uk i frequently get asked
0:15
about feeding shrimp how much should i feed my shrimp how often should i feed mushroom what should
0:19
i feed to my shrimp and the problem is the answer these questions is generally it depends which is
0:25
not helpful to anybody. So in today's video I'm going to shed some light on how often you should
0:30
feed your shrimp, how much you should feed your shrimp and what you should feed your shrimp. Now
0:34
one of the reasons these questions are so hard to answer is because of the number of variables
0:40
How many shrimp do you have? How large is your tank? What filter are you using? How mature is
0:44
your tank? Do you have live plants? Do you have lots of algae? Each of these variables will affect
0:50
how much and how often you should feed your shrimp. So let's try and break this down into
0:55
some answers that will help everybody. Let's start with how much you should feed your shrimp
0:59
Now the answer to this question will vary depending on how many shrimp you have but the good thing is
1:03
there is a way you can work out how much you should feed your individual shrimp tank and what
1:09
you do is you place a small amount of food into the shrimp tank, ideally in a shrimp feeding bowl
1:16
so you can actually monitor how much they've eaten. Then you carefully monitor shrimp for the next
1:20
one to three hours. If you find within an hour all the food is gone, the chances are next time you
1:27
feed your shrimp, you'll want to feed a little bit more, a little bit more. If after three hours on
1:32
the other hand, there is still lots of food or worse still, the shrimp have all wandered off to
1:36
do other things with their day, you probably want to feed less food next time. And if you do this
1:42
two or three times, over two, three, four feedings, you'll quickly build up a picture in your mind of
1:48
how much food your shrimp will consume within that one to three hour window
1:53
Why do we put a limit of three hours on it? Well, the vast majority of foods, the minute they hit the water
1:58
they're beginning to break down. They're beginning to crumble or disintegrate in the water
2:04
And any food that isn't being eaten will essentially rot. And whilst it doesn't rot instantly
2:11
what we don't want is to have uneaten food sitting in the tanks for six, 12, 18 hours
2:16
however long it might be, because that food, as it starts to break down and rot
2:21
will release ammonia into your tank, which will start to destroy your water quality
2:25
So in an ideal world we really want the shrimp to have eaten almost all of the food if not all of it within that three hour window now there are some exceptions if you feed something which is water stable something like rapashi gel food which i get a lot of criticism for the amount
2:42
of time i spend saying how fabulous rapashi is because it is an expensive food you can leave
2:47
a lump of rapashi in your shrimp tank for 12 24 even 36 hours and it remains water stable it doesn't
2:55
break down and start to pollute your tank. It's one of the reasons I love feeding it so much
2:58
So when it comes to working out how much food you should feed your shrimp, see how much they consume within a one to three hour window. If they consume it all quickly
3:07
next time try adding more. If three or four hours pass and there's still food left or the shrimp
3:11
have all dispersed around the tank, next time feed a little less. So the next question we want
3:18
to ask ourselves is how often should we feed our shrimp? Now personally, I try and feed my shrimp
3:23
every other day or every third day. And that is just an interval that I have found works for me and for my shrimp
3:32
Now, whilst I'm a huge proponent of target feeding your shrimp, I believe to build a strong, large, healthy colony of shrimp
3:40
you do have to target feed them. There is also, in any shrimp tank
3:44
or in any shrimp tank that's had more than five minutes to mature, there is a wealth of algae and biofilm and general detritus that the shrimp will feed on
3:53
Now, if you keep your shrimp in a heavily planted aquarium where there's constantly leaves breaking down, if you keep it in an aquarium where you're quite happy for algae to form on most surfaces, if you keep your shrimp in a tank with fish who are eating and pooping and creating more detritus for the shrimp to consume, then you probably can get away with feeding them less, maybe a couple of times a week
4:15
equally if you keep an intensive breeding tub the sort of thing I'm going to show you in my
4:20
breeding shrimp for profit series I'm creating then in a situation like that where you might
4:26
have two three four hundred shrimp and you're trying to intensively grow that population then
4:30
maybe you feed them every day it really is a case of looking at your tank looking at your shrimp and
4:36
deciding what you're trying to achieve going back to the previous example of how much you feed
4:41
If you put food in and within 30, 60 seconds, it's covered in shrimp
4:45
They're absolutely ravenous. And within an hour, they've consumed it all and gone. Then maybe you need to feed more often
4:54
Equally, if you're putting the food in, it's about the right amount, but three four five hours are passing and there still food left The shrimp aren that fast Then maybe rather than reducing the quantity of food you putting in maybe you reduce the frequency Maybe you just feed those shrimp once a week twice a week
5:09
It very much depends on how they react to the food that you put in the tank. There is no one size fits all when it comes to how often
5:17
or how much you should feed your shrimp. You have to spend some time assessing your shrimp
5:23
and working out from there what is the best way forward. You also have to bear in mind that hopefully over time, the size of your colony will grow
5:32
On day one, when you have 10 shrimp and you put half an algae wafer in and they consume that in
5:37
about three hours, perfect. But on day 100, when you have 300 shrimp, half an algae wafer isn't
5:45
quite going to cut it. You're going to need to adjust as time goes on. As long as you stick to
5:50
the rules of whatever they consume in about one to three hours, roughly, you should be able to
5:55
constantly change the amount of food you're feeding depending on the needs and the size
5:59
of your colony. I don't think I can stress enough that there is no hard and fast rules. There is no
6:05
you must feed this often, you must feed this quantity. Just because your friend feeds every
6:11
day, maybe that doesn't work for your colony. Just because you know someone who only chucks
6:15
food in once a month and his or her colony survive, maybe that isn't what you want to achieve. Maybe
6:20
you don't just want a cleanup crew. Maybe you're actively trying to grow the size of your colony
6:24
maybe you really want to plump your females up so they produce more babies
6:29
In that case, chucking an algae wafer in once a month isn't going to do that for your colony
6:34
unless there is some other food sources in there that they have access to. I know when I was new to the hobby, I was absolutely obsessed by not overfeeding, not underfeeding
6:43
I would spend all my time looking in the tank. Oh, it's been five minutes. That shrimp hasn't come to the food. Is he okay
6:50
The reality is, shrimp are incredibly hardy. And as long as we meet their basic needs
6:57
and do our best to supplement their diet with good quality food
7:01
you really, you can't go wrong. Now, the final question here was, what should we feed our shrimp
7:06
And as I've said many times before, shrimp are detrivores. They will eat anything they come across
7:11
They'll happily eat a guppy that's passed away, a leaf that's breaking down
7:15
some poop from your goldfish, some leftover food from your placos. they don't care. They're detrivores. They will consume. It's their job in life is to essentially
7:24
be a cleanup crew It what they do They also spend a huge amount of time eating algae and biofilm And biofilm is that natural slime that builds up on pretty much every surface in your aquarium Shrimp spend almost their entire day eating picking at algae picking at
7:44
biofilm, eating microscopic crustaceans, breaking down fish poop. They will eat anything they come
7:51
across. Now with that said, as I've said constantly, if you want to really grow your colony, you want
7:58
their biggest, brightest, healthier shrimp you can get. You do need to target feed them. You do need
8:02
to specifically provide them with food. Now there are a huge number of different foods on the market
8:07
from your basic cheap algae wafers that you might buy in a decent sized sack to very expensive
8:13
specialist food that has been designed with the shrimp in mind. I'm going to let you into a little
8:19
secret. It doesn't matter what food you feed your shrimp. I genuinely believe all fish and shrimp
8:24
foods these days are pretty much of a decent quality. If you pick any decent fish or shrimp food
8:30
your shrimp will be happy as. The secret here isn't really what you feed your shrimp. It's about
8:36
giving them variety. The more variety we give our shrimp, the greater the range of vitamins and
8:41
nutrients and minerals they have access to. And much like with us, the greater the range of
8:46
vitamins and nutrients and minerals we have access to, the happier, the healthier, the fitter
8:51
the stronger we are. So I would just recommend feeding whatever foods you happen to have
8:56
Now, if you don't have fish, if you only have a shrimp tank and you're looking for some specific foods, then I would say go and buy a decent shrimp sinking pellet. Go and look at
9:05
some decent wafers. As you probably know, I'm a massive fan of rapashi food. That's a decent
9:10
quality food with a great mix of ingredients. So it's not so important what you actually feed your
9:14
shrimp. It's about making sure they get a varied diet, getting variety to give them the full
9:19
spectrum of goodness. So essentially, when it comes to feeding shrimp, it's about finding out
9:24
what works for your colony, feeding as often as your colony needs it, feeding as much as your
9:30
colony will consume in a reasonable space of time, and feeding a variety of foods, but just pick good
9:37
quality foods you have access to. There isn't really a one-size-fits-all food that you can feed
9:43
to your shrimp that will make the difference. Just give them variety. The reality is, much of a
9:49
shrimp's day will be taken up consuming algae and biofilm. And one of the best ways to develop
9:55
biofilm in your aquarium for your shrimp is to grow java moss. And if you want to know my
9:59
secrets to growing java moss, watch this video next. Thanks for watching
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